In Zawame City, the suffocating presence of the Yggdrasill Corporation has led to the city's youth forming competing street-dance crews as a way to bring energy and excitement back into their lives.

Another popular activity is a Mons game that uses fruit and nut-themed padlocks called Lockseeds to summon tiny creatures called "Inves". As the game becomes more and more popular, strange dimensional tears begin to open around the city to the mysterious Helheim Forest. When an Inves consumes a fruit from this forest, there is a chance of it evolving into a more powerful form but at the risk of losing all control and going on a hunger-induced rampage.

Kouta Kazuraba is an earnest young man who quits his dance crew - Team Gaim - so that he can find a job and support his sister. When he is caught up in the attack of a berserk Inves, Kouta stumbles upon a strange transformation belt and Lockseed, which he uses to transform into "Armored Rider Gaim" and defend his friends and the city.

However, it is not as simple as that. There are many other Armored Riders in the city with their own motivations and sense of justice, and soon a modern version of the Warring States Era erupts between the masked warriors.

The series is followed by two Kamen Rider Gaim GaidenDirect-to-Video DVDs, each with two Interquel stories featuring secondary Riders that take place during the series. The first one features Baron and Zangetsu, and the second features Duke and Knuckle.

Recurring Kamen Rider tropes include:

By the Power of Grayskull!: The Driver belts give long, involved henshin announcements for each Lockseed used, and every single Lock Seed has its own special jingle or catchphrase (such as "Hanamichi On Stage" or "Knight of Spear"). It's revealed that Ryoma installed them as his "guilty pleasures".

Calling Your Attacks: Not the Riders themselves, but their belts, which announce the name of their finisher to the world.

City of Adventure: Zawame City. According to Ryoma, it's where the cracks to Helheim naturally occur most often and therefore why Yggdrasill set up shop there.

Cool Bike: A Kamen Rider staple; they're called Lock Vehicles, are flower-themed, and have the ability to travel from Earth to Helheim and back. Gaim, Bravo, and Kurokage have Sakura Hurricanes and Baron, Ryugen, and Gridon have Rose Attackers. Kurokage Troopers use flying bikes called Dandeliners, and Chicken Walker attack mechs called Tuliphoppers.

Finishing Move: Naturally. Though also subverted in the end as only the only Big Bad level threats to be defeated with a traditional finisher were Redyue and Demushu. Zangetsu was 'defeated' by Kouta befriending him, Duke committed suicide after being beaten down by Lord Baron, Micchy was redeemed, and Lord Baron was simply impaled by a piece of his own sword.

Limit Break: Using the Cutting Blade while transformed allows the Riders to use their Arms' special attacks. Different abilities activate depending on how many cuts are made:

One cut: (Arms) Squash, generally the Finishing Move. The most common is of course a Rider Kick, but other variations exist.

Two cuts: (Arms) Au Lait, generally a powerful attack that makes use of either the Rider's weapon or energy projections.

Three Cuts: (Arms) Sparking, a multipurpose function. Though generally another Special Attack, it also makes creative use of the Armor Parts, as seen with Kouta and his armor transforming into a powerful spinning helmet. In this way, it's a sort of defensive function.

Magitek: Like in Kamen Rider Double, the origin of the Riders' superhuman abilities comes from a mystical or otherwordly source (in this case, Helheim fruit/Lockseeds), but they must utilize the human-made technology of transformation Drivers to filter it and avoid going insane from the power.

Monster of the Week: Averted, breaking the tradition that the franchise has had for the last few years. The appearance of new Inves is sporadic and infrequent, with little attention called to them, and the Riders are generally more likely to fight small reoccurring Inves hordes, or other Riders. The closest thing to one, however, are three minor Overlord Inves, one fulfilling the normal format and two who fulfill the Monster of the Fortnight format that Double to Wizard showed.

Multiform Balance: Unlike prior series, most prominent Riders have multiple Lockseeds to choose from (plus an unofficial Master of None form when none are equipped). The forms gained from the Lockseeds are called "Arms":

Zangetsu is simple in comparison, having only a Jack-of-All-Stats (Melon Arms) and Lightning Bruiser (Melon Energy Arms) forms. He gets a third in a DVD, Watermelon Arms.

Knuckle has the normal Kurumi Arms, and Super Mode in Jimber Marron Arms.

Duke has three forms: the basic Lemon Arms that Ryoma abandons after using Lemon Energy Arms, and in the Movie War Full Throttle he gains Super Mode, Dragon Energy Arms.

Not Using the "Z" Word: The masked warriors of Zawame City are never referred to as "Kamen Riders"; those wielding the Sengoku Driver are called Armored Riders, and those with the Genesis Driver are called Shin Sedainote literally "New Generation" Riders. Except in all forms of crossovers of course, as the other Riders know what they are.

Power Armor: Though all Kamen Rider series use it, this one is special in that switching around multiple forms is the focus.

Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted, although when a Rider is attacked mid-transformation he can usually dodge, defend, or even weaponize the Arms to defend himself. Usually. Micchy sneak-attacks Kouta when the latter is in the middle of exchanging Arms, knocking him out cold.

Transformation Trinket: Two; the Sengoku Driver and the Genesis Driver, each used by multiple Riders and all of them still turn into distinct Riders even before Lockseeds are applied. The Genesis Drivers use more powerful "Energy" Lockseeds than the Sengoku Drivers do, though Kouta gets an attachment that lets him use Energy Lockseeds with his Sengoku Driver and later gets Sengoku-compatible Lockseeds that outclass the Energy ones.

Weapon of Choice: Each Lock Seed grants its own unique weapon, which are known as Arms Weapons.

Mix-and-Match Weapon: Gaim and Zangetsu's MusouSaber, which they always have regardless of which Arms they equip themselves with. Typically used as a sword, its hilt also doubles as a gun. The former can combine his Musou Saber with some of his other weapons for extra power.

Energy Bow: The Sonic Arrow, wielded by Riders who use Energy Lock Seeds.

Katanas Are Just Better: Orange Arms' Daidaimaru.note Becomes a naginata when combined with the Musou Saber. Gaim tends to dual wield his Musou Saber alongside the Daidaimaru. There's also a "Fresh" version of the Orange Lockseed seen in the Hyper Battle DVD that provides dual Daidaimaru.

Hyperspace Arsenal: Kiwami Arms has the ability to summon any of the above weapons. There's also the Yomotsuheguri Arms, which can summon the Budou Ryuhou, Kiwi Gekirin, and weapons used by the Over Lords.

Kamen Rider Gaim gives us these tropes:

A Day in the Limelight: Several characters have this across different episodes. Special mention goes to the Gaiden episodes, which are explicitly this trope.

Kaito gets one in both #8 and #37.

Micchy has one in #17.

Yggdrasill as a whole gets one in #20.

Oren and Jonouchi get one in #25.

Adult Fear: In Episode 38, Micchy tactically attempts to manipulate Mai by attacking her self-esteem and self worth (claiming she needs to come with him for her own protection) in a scene that disturbingly resembles what Real Life emotional abusers do to break down their targets.

Advertised Extra: With the press that Gridon got in the beginning, being the unofficial fifth member of the show's cast and his identity kept a secret until his debut, most people were convinced that Gridon would be a major player. As it turns out, he only appeared in a third of the episodes and only became a main character during the last quarter of the show. This is because the Gridon suit was one of the first suits to be finished before filming began.

All There in the Manual: None of Yggdrasill's Riders have their titles used in-show; Zangetsu is called "the white Armored Rider" by those who don't know him, and the others are just addressed by their real names.

Kaito eventually eats one of the Helheim fruits and becomes an Overlord Inves himself.

Antagonist Title: Downplayed. The arc titles (Beat Riders Saga, Yggdrasill Saga, Helheim Saga, Overlord Saga) are named after the antagonist for that arc, but they're All There in the Manual, and even then, Yggdrasil is the major antagonist for the Helheim Saga. Averted with the Forbidden Fruit Saga, unless you count its final villain, Kougane, as the antagonist over its main villains Redyue and Kaito.

Anyone Can Die: Solidified in #14, when Hase is killed and it's revealed that Yuya was the Byakko Inves that was destroyed back in #1.

Kill 'em All: The series eventually heads into this territory by the final arcs. At the end, the only ones who haven't died (or had a really close call) were a handful of minor supporting characters and Mitsuzane, for whom death would have been the easy way out. Kouta and Mai aren't actually dead either. Everyone else just thought that.

The Artifact: In-universe, the Beat Riders' street dancing started taking a backseat to the Inves Game even before the series started; in one episode Mai laments the fact that the Rider rankings are more based upon the team's record in the Inves Game than their actual dancing skills. After a good chunk of Armored Riders pop up in the scene, the Inves Games slowly take a backseat to the Rider battles. This progressed until #18, when the remaining Beat Riders ended their competition (and with it, use of the Inves Game to solve disputes) and those who just wanted to dance merged into a single troupe.

Artifact of Attraction: The Helheim Fruits are these to humans (or any kind of animal, really). Everyone who sees one is entranced with how delicious it looks until they're pulled away or their attention is drawn elsewhere.

Assimilation Plot: It turns out Helheim Forest does this, absorbing other worlds into itself and converting all the native animal life into Inves.

Badass Gay/Camp Gay: Kamen Rider Bravo. Everyone who fights him either needs to double-team him or use the giant Suika Armor.

Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: When Kouta begins to sweat over killing Hase and trying in vain to get him to become a human again, the New Generation Riders come in to finish off Hase and spare Kouta the turmoil and instead give him a person to hate.

Band of Brothers: The surviving Riders of Zawame City (minus Kouta) became this at the end of the series.

The Beastmaster: Armored Riders have the ability to fully summon and control Inves. The Over Lords also have this ability.

Big Bad: Helheim Forest (and by extension, its avatar DJ Sagara) is the overall "villain" and the source of just about all the problems in the show.

Big Bad Ensemble: While Helheim is the big threat that spurs everyone else into action, there are a lot of other major villains that cause trouble for an arc or more:

Takatora is an Anti-Villain truly trying to save humanity from Helheim, but is using morally questionable methods such as victimizing children. He eventually drops out of villain status as his good qualities are revealed and his evil actions are explained as done out of desperation.

Ryoma is scheming behind Takatora's back by taking advantage of the Helheim situation to claim power for himself and his little group.

Overlord Rosyuo is teased as one, but ultimately a subversion as once we get to know him he turns out to be quite noble. Instead, it's Redyue who leads an invasion of Earth; even when Rosyuo gets involved it's only to add some muscle to Redyue's plan.

Coming from behind is Mitsuzane, whose power and evil has been steadily increasing throughout the show. He's not quite up to rivaling the other Big Bads yet, but if he continues... He never quite makes it there; while he regularly allies with the other villains and becomes a major personal threat to Kouta, he never plays for the higher stakes that the others do and always remains secondary to them.

Bio Punk: Helheim fruits alter the eater's DNA, converting them into an Inves. While it proves a Deadly Upgrade for most people, in Kouta and Kaito's cases, exposure to the Forbidden Fruit and a virus carried by the Inves (respectively) ultimately led to Kouta's upgrade into a human-looking Overlord and Kaito's transformation, triggered by his devouring a Helheim fruit, into a monster Overlord form called Lord Baron.

However, the finale manages to sweeten it up just a little. Mitsuzane completes his Heel–Face Turn by fighting a threat that no one had the power to face. Kouta manages to show that he can pop by Earth every now and then, giving Micchy his closure. Jonouchi also receives his closure as to what happened regarding Hase, and while it ends badly for him, he lives to tell the tale. Kaito's childhood tree is brought back, with him serving as its spirit. On the bitter side, the fallout of Project Arc's revelation and Helheim's invasion is still a prevalent threat and Takatora liquidated all the Mass-Produced Sengoku Drivers with no way of creating Lockseeds, leaving Micchy as the only person to actually fight any new threat. However, in Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Drive And Gaim Movie War Full Throttle his brother acquires both a Sengoku Driver and a Genesis Driver, so Micchy is no longer the only person left to defend the world against a supernatural threat.

#9 was pretty light-hearted and harkened back to the earlier Heisei Rider shows.

#12 is this. While there's still some action and rather dark developments, compared to the previous episodes, there's plenty of room to breathe and just feels more like an aftermath episode than anything else.

Likewise, #15 isn't as action-packed or wham-filled as #13 and #14 with the exception of Takatora finding out that Mitsuzane is Ryugen.

The crossover special with Ressha Sentai ToQger basically acts as this as well, airing right in the middle of a particularly dramatic arc.

#25 focuses on Jonouchi and Oren. By this point, you may realize the breather episodes occur roughly once every other episode. That's mainly because the pacing has it that almost all the other episodes after #09 are either action-packed or downright Wham Episodes.

#36 is another Wham Episode. #37 interrupts the plot again in order to have a Prequel to the Non-Serial Movie (though it's less of a breather, and more of the plot being put briefly on hold).

Bullying a Dragon: After the Inves plague breaks out, all of Zawame City blames the Armored Riders and openly scorns and insults them. Kaito shows how antagonizing people with superpowers is stupid on so many levels.

The two crooks in #21 are either this or Mugging the Monster, depending if they knew the three kids they were trying to push around were superheroes or not.

Bystander Syndrome: With the exception of Kouta and Mitsuzane (early on), all of the other Armored Riders suffer from this caring more about their own goals, ambitions, and egos ignoring the threat Yggdrasill and Helheim pose. It takes a Batman Gambit to get them all off of their asses to do something.

By #12 this extends to Micchy of all people. Since using the Sengoku Drivers means providing data for Yggdrasill's experiments, Micchy chooses to merely watch on as innocent people get attacked by Inves.

The scene where Kouta interacts with DJ Sagara almost plays beat for beat with Mitsuzane's chat with Sid. Both of them showcase their strongest point (Kouta's desire to save people and Mitsuzane's manipulation to get what he wants), and both Sagara and Sid applaud their points and "leave behind" a Transformation Trinket. It's almost like looking into a mirror...

In #28 Kaito tells Mitsuzane to run away with his tail between his legs. Ten episodes later Mitsuzane repeats the exact same lines to Kaito. This actually was mentioned in episode 5, when Kaito asked Micchy if Kouta ran with his tail between his legs during his fight with him.

#40 has another, back to episode 5 where a quiz promotion was held, asking viewers whether Gaim's catchphrase was "I'll turn you into fruit juice!" or "This is my stage now!", the latter of which was correct. The other answer appears as Yuya's catchphrase in Kouta's hallucination.

Remember in #24 when Sagara created the Kachidoki Lockseed? Fast forward 17 episodes later in #41, Kouta regenerates the damaged Lockseed in the same way.

Back in #1, Kouta, like any person, is psychically attracted to eat the Helheim Fruit which would turn him into an Inves. It happens to him again in #45 to show that eating it as he is now changes absolutely nothing; he's already become an Inves, and an Over Lord at that. Furthermore, it also illustrates that it is LITERALLY the only thing left that tastes good to him, now that he's an Over Lord.

In #8, when Takatora ponders who could have stolen the Suika Lockseed from him, Sid remarks "Maybe it was your brother?" and gets a dirty glare in response. Because it's this trope, of course Sid's correct, but he doesn't 100% know it until he confronts Mitsuzane later; he's just making an educated guess because, unlike Takatora, he's fully aware that Micchy is Armored Rider Ryugen. Though Sid seems rather enthralled with Takatora not believing him as opposed to the usual reaction.

Kaito is fully aware of Micchy's Face–Heel Turn, having witnessed him shoot Kouta in the back in #26; however, he doesn't bother to tell Kouta (though he has been hinting at it) because he's aware this trope will be in effect. In #29, he even tries to suggest to Kouta that there might be a traitor in their midst; when Kouta brushes it off, Kaito leans in towards Micchy (who's shooting him a Death Glare) and whispers "See? He wouldn't believe me even if I told him."

Later in the series Yoko Minato, who knows the same thing Kaito does, joins Kouta's group but Kaito advises her against trying to tell him for the same reasons. In #35, Minato outright tells Kouta "Mitsuzane Kureshima has been deceiving you all along", but of course Kouta doesn't buy it, which makes it even more painful at the end of the episode when Micchy completely abandons the charade and tries to kill Kouta.

Cast Herd: Early on, majority of the cast is easily split into three groups.

Cavalry Betrayal: At the end of #5, Hase and Jonouchi transform into Kurokage and Gridon, making it look like Team Gaim is going to have to fight three enemy Riders at once. However, the two of them backstab Kaito in the Cold Opening for the very next episode.

Cerebus Retcon: That first Inves that Kouta fights? It was Yuya all along.

Cerebus Syndrome: With Gen Urobuchi at the helm we knew it was coming. The stakes get higher around episode ten-ish, but it's really cemented in #13-14, when we see three things: 1) Those attacked by Inves aren't out of the woods yet, literally: they develop an illness where plants of Helheim grow from their bodies and no one can do anything about it. This also turns the public against the Riders for their connection to the Inves. 2) The Elementary Inves are Earth animals who've eaten Helheim's fruits, and the very first Monster of the Week Inves was Yuya mutated by eating one, and Kouta's first act as Gaim was to unknowingly kill his friend whom he's been searching for ever since. 3) Hase's attempt to regain his powers by eating a Helheim fruit ends in his becoming a mindless monster, and Lock Dealer Sid debuts as Armored Rider Sigurd and kills Hase. And in light of all that, yes, that does also mean the maintenance worker we saw about to eat a fruit probably became the MOTW from #9 that the Riders took out. In fact, it's impossible to know how many Inves have been innocent humans; if we didn't witness the transformation from an Elementary Inves, it's a possibility. Episode 20 takes this further by confirming that the Inves that aren't human are the former residents of the last world Helheim took over.

Chekhov's Gag: Remember that gag with Oren gushing over Takatora? It's the key to helping Kouta figure out that the Zangetsu that's been attacking him the previous few episodes is not the same one he befriended.

In Knuckle Gaiden, it's shown in an early scene that Team Baron have Kaito's old Drivers as part of their shrine to him. Once Zack gets the Marron Energy Lockseed that he can't use without a Genesis Driver, he sends Peko to get the Genesis Core from Kaito's broken Genesis Driver.

Chest Insignia: Gaim has his curved-sword crest on his helmet. Other than that, everyone who uses an S Lock seed has one: the regular Energy Arms have a circle to the side with the Riders' symbol, the Jimber Arms sport Gaim's symbol on one of the colored strips, and Kachidoki Arms has a gigantic full-chest logo. Kiwami Arms takes it to its natural conclusion, and places the outer emblem around the helmet crest, giving it a crown-like effect. Fitting, for a shogun.

Chromatic Arrangement: The three main Beat Rider characters - Gaim, Baron, and Ryugen - are blue, red, and green. Zangetsu, the fourth main character but set apart from the other three by his power and alignment, complements them with his white armor.

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Mitsuzane began wearing dark colors when he joined Yggdrasill, and has gone onto a completely black suit after allying with Redyue. Minato, on the other hand, has slowly been losing her dark look since Ryoma ditched her, first losing her dark jacket to show her white blouse, and finally switching to an all-white suit after her conversation with Takatora forgiving her for her betrayal and her affirming she'll fight by them. Where she got the suit is another matter altogether.

Comes Great Responsibility: Kouta learns this in #4; the only other Rider to even remotely learn this lesson is Takatora, who in #26 even names a formal term for it, noblesse oblige.

Defied in #8; Kouta tries to ask the other Armored Riders for help tracking down the Inves that's attacking people all over the city. Kaito outright refuses, saying that all the lower-ranked teams care about is dethroning Gaim, and correctly predicts that Invitto and Raid Wild will say the same thing.

Comically Missing the Point: When Oren takes to the airwaves to call out the Beat Riders, he uses the fact that he has employed Jonouchi as his apprentice as an example of how he plans to "discipline" the children. Mai completely misses the implied threat of violence, and instead becomes ecstatic over the prospect of getting to work at a pastry shop.

Coming-of-Age Story: One of the main themes of the show. Some of the older members of the cast don't live up to the mature moral standard expected from adults (Ryoma is more invested in research over lives and Minato follows his lead without question until he abandons her and Yggdrasill, while Sid—who openly proclaims the superiority of adults and the idiocy of children—and Oren are both jerks that tend to bully others that are weaker than them though Oren eventually grows out of this mindset). In contrast, the younger members of the cast start out naive and immature, and while some of them stay that way or develop in other directions, the others begin to realize that they can't stay children forever, and have to take responsibility for their choices if they want to move forward in their lives.

Conflicting Loyalty: The main setup of #17 is that Mitsuzane's first task upon joining Yggdrasill is to steal Kouta's belt. Torn between his friendship with Kouta and his allegiance with Yggdrasill, he sets up a hostage situation with himself being a mystery ransomer. However, his plan is foiled by Oren and he is forced to go through the conflict again, with him ultimately siding with Kouta. However, he still keeps his ties to Yggdrasill by convincing them in making him The Mole. He has this conflict for a while though, before Mai kills one of his loyalties by slapping him. Unfortunately, it kills his loyalty towards Kouta.

Continuity Nod: During the crossover with ToQger, Kouta forcibly stops Right from eating the fruit from Helheim. He doesn't want what happened to Hase and Yuya to happen to Right as well.

Cosmic Horror Story: The Helheim Forest essentially absorbs entire planets into its fold, and is aiming to absorb our planet within 10 years.

Crapsaccharine World -> Crapsack World: Zawame City in a nutshell. At first glance it looks like any other Heisei season with its bright colors, dance teams, quirky characters, and silly fruit gimmicks. But dig a little deeper and you'll find that Zawame City is a horrible place to live. Yggdrasill controls the city like a totalitarian police state, the people are at constant risk of being attacked by endless hordes of monsters, an uncontrollable plague is infecting the citizens, all of the antagonists are hyper-competent killers who avoid the typical Toku Villain Ball cliches. And then the Cosmic Horror Story comes into play, making everything, far, far worse.

Crowd Hockey: If knocking the Lockseeds out of our heroes' hands wasn't cheap enough, the first two episodes throw this in for good measure.

Darker and Edgier: Despite the fruit theme, Gaim in discussion between the producer Naomi Takebe and Gen Urobuchi, Naomi made a special request for the series to return to the darker, more arc-focused narratives that characterized early Heisei-era series; Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki and Faiz were mentioned by Takebe in particular. This has been backed up by series writer Gen Urobuchi, who also stated in said interview that he was mainly inspired by Kamen Rider Black with the Rider Battle inspired by the conflict between Black and Shadowmoon, this is contrary to the popular belief of said battle being inspired by Kamen Rider Ryuki.

By the end of episodes 12-14, Gaim has successfully become darker than previous rider shows.

By the end of episode 20, it got even darker: the series has become a cosmic horror story. Adding to the fact despite having so many Riders, we only have one fully good Rider, that being Gaim of course. Everyone else is a very mixed bag. With nearly all of Kouta's allies either being on the villains side (Micchy), somehow being worse (Kaito) or not too involved in the main plot (Zach). The villains are either an Anti-Villain (Takatora), a hate sink (Jonouchi and Sid), an amoral scientist (Ryoma) or Blood Knights (Yoko and Oren).

Had Urobuchi remove all of its lighthearted moments, Gaim becomes a full-blown Tragedy to the point of being the darkest and goriest Rider show in the franchise's history, surpassing Faiz, Ryuki, Kuuga, and Black in the process.

Duke Gaiden and Knuckle Gaiden managed to be this even compared to Gaim as a whole. Duke Gaiden, aside from being a Villain Episode, features a villain creating Brainwashed and Crazy suicide bombers, which is played entirely seriously, and Sid siccing a bunch of Inves on said Brainwashed and Crazy people without remorse. We even get a token cameo of drugs from Sid's backstory as an actual drug dealer. Knuckle Gaiden on the other hand has a gang pulling Fight Club antics at the whim of their Social Darwinist leader, Zack almost gets beaten to death, and said Social Darwinist planning to exterminate anyone not associated with his group.

Deadly Upgrade: Kiwami Arms, which seems to be doing exactly what Sagara promised it would - turning Kouta into an Over Lord.

The Yomotsuheguri Lockseed possesses power to rival Kiwami Arms, at the cost of its user's life force.

Deconstruction: Urobuchi seems to be going for this for Kamen Rider as a whole, not unlike how he deconstructed the Magical Girl genre with Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The series takes several tropes commonly found in the Kamen Rider franchise and plays them in much different ways.

A prominent example is in #14, when a villainous Kamen Rider unsympathetically kills a person who has transformed into a monster. He mockingly answers to the shocked and outraged protagonist:

Sid makes sure to give out Rider powers to people who are rather amoral. Instead of learning how to use their powers responsibly, they simply become Drunk with Power like how any real teenager would if given superpowers. In addition, the antagonists use the data gathered from their fights to make Rider powers superior to the heroes in every conceivable way.

The series also deconstructs Merchandise-Driven shows that treat their subject matter as Serious Business. The characters start off using their Lock seeds and Rider armors for completely petty, high school-level disputes that would not be uncommon in your average Shōnen anime, and the audience is expected to take this 100 percent seriously. Then, as more and more information is revealed about the horrifying nature of Helheim and people start dying, it becomes increasingly clear to the audience that the Beat Rider stuff is child's play in comparison to what is really going on. This is actually acknowledged within the series itself when Kouta and Kaito eventually end up quitting their respective Beat Rider teams in order to focus on the more serious matters at hand.

An early example of deconstruction from #4. Kouta loses a fight with Zangetsu, and nearly dies. While normal heroes in these types of shows would vow to defeat Zangetsu, Kouta becomes petrified to the point of not even touching his belt.

Kaito himself is arguably a deconstruction of the Second Rider trope. Many of the Second Riders from the franchise start off as The Rival to the hero (Riderman, Accel, Meteor), before undergoing a Heel–Face Turn. Kaito starts off as a vicious rival, then seems like he's going to realize what he's doing is wrong and fight alongside Kouta, only to quickly go right back to his old ways after he finds out whatever is in Helheim will help him on his quest for more power. He does aid the hero on several more occasions, but he remains a very morally ambiguous character. He ultimately becomes the Big Bad of the final arc after gaining Over Lord powers, seeking to rule the world with the Forbidden Fruit's powers.

Likewise, Mitsuzane is arguably a deconstruction of the Second Riders who are more friendly to their Main Rider (especiallyGatack, as the two characters both have a similar family connection with a mysterious corporation). Mitsuzane takes his friendship with Team Gaim seriously, to the point where he feels he has to keep secrets from them or even outright ''lie'' to maintain their happiness and bond. At the same time, he assists Yggdrasill and learns about a dozen awful truths that he keeps away from his friends, all while convinced that his actions are for the best. His overall personality, especially when he gets desperate, shows that just because the Second Rider is friendly doesn't mean he's out-and-out good. As the series progress, Mitsuzane is revealed to be very ruthless and manipulative, and he develops an intense hatred for Kouta. This reaches a breaking point in #26, when he completely turns on his friend. After that, Mitsuzane becomes obsessed with killing Kouta.

Hideyasu Jonouchi is arguably a deconstruction of the bespectacled, intelligent villain archetype often seen in anime/Japanese media. When he first appears he is built up as a threat, as he is considered by rival groups to be dangerous for his intelligence and dirty tactics. Once he becomes Gridon however, it becomes clear that while he may be smart, he doesn't know how to fight at all and is easily defeated, becoming more of a Butt-Monkey than a serious villain. Once he betrays Hase, he says he'll search for someone else to manipulate, suggesting that his character may take a darker turn, though even that is turned to comic relief once he tries (and fails) to manipulate Oren Pierre Alfonzo.

Takatora is arguably a deconstruction of the Big Bad. For the first part of the series, he's shown to be in charge of the massive organization that controls the city, has a secret agenda that he's determined to carry out, considers the other Armored Riders beneath him, delivers an utter Curb-Stomp Battle and the traditional tossed-into-the-drink scene to Gaim, and is built up to be a major threat as the most powerful character. However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that Takatora isn't as "in control" as he seemed, since all of his underlings have formed an alliance behind his back and are keeping critical information from him. The reason for all this is because they're the greedy, evil ones, and Takatora is actually as noble and idealistic as Kouta, but had to suppress it because the only apparent way to save humanity from Helheim would involve sacrificing billions. When he learns about the existence of the Over Lords, Takatora is greatly relieved at the chance to save everybody, and gladly joins forces with Kouta, at which point Ryoma's alliance strikes and apparently kills him (he survives, thankfully).

The entire series can also be said to be a Deconstruction of the common Kamen Rider theme of The Hero fighting his battles alone, bearing the sins on his back. Almost all the other Riders encountered this in one way or the other (Even Fourze found himself fighting alone at one point), and Kouta is no exception with nearly everyone he can rely on being either dead or too amoral/jerkish to help and his biggest sin being that he killed Yuya. The series goes out of its way to show just how it eats away at him, especially when he's expected to keep secrets, and shows just how alone he is in his war against Helheim.

There's also a deconstruction of Living Macguffins. Mai is turned into one and the show takes the trope to its logical conclusion, outright saying that Mai's become the Kamen Rider equivalent to Eve. Meanwhile the reactions from both of Kouta's rivals are either desiring Mai as a prize to be won rather than a person or being so devastated that she's become nothing more than an object now that he doesn't bother fighting for her. Only Kouta has no minding towards Mai's status as a Macguffin.

Decon-Recon Switch: While the series deconstructed both Sid unsympathetically killing a human turned monster while praising himself as a hero and the friendly Second Rider trope; comes the epilogue. Micchy battles against Kougane in order to atone for everything he has done that made him lose everything. When Kougane told Micchy if he kills him, he'll kill the girl he is possessing. Instead of killing him and the girl like Sid did to Hase before, Micchy ceases his transformation to show that he really did change for the better and he is not heartless because Kamen Riders protect the innocent. It was even acknowledged by Kouta who came back to Earth to help Micchy defeat Kougane once and for all like two Riders teaming up would. It shows that Micchy may have hit rock bottom before, but he is not beyond redemption especially in Kouta and Takatora's eyes.

Digital Piracy Is Evil: After a fashion; in #16, the other Beat Riders learn how to "jailbreak" Lockseeds, which lets them summon fully materialized Inves in the real world, just like the Armored Riders can do. Team Redhot uses this to commit crimes, including sending their Inves to rob a jewelry storenote And Kaito comments that the other teams are doing much the same thing. This even gets the Aesop moment when Sonomura's jailbroken Mango Lockseed shorts out, causing the Inves it summoned to go berserk and beat the crap out of Redhot.

Distracted by the Sexy: Bravo is easily defeated by Zangetsu after he drops his weapons and begins swooning over his opponent.

Distant Finale: While a large part of #46 takes place three months after Kouta's ascension to Over Lord godhood, #47 is the show's epilogue that takes place another four months later, focusing on Micchy's Guilt Complex and Kougane's return as Kamen Rider Jam.

Takatora is unaware that his brother is in the Rider Games. The thing is, he was offered to see who was a Rider, but refused, furthering the irony. It gets exaggerated as the DJ is also in on Yggdrasill's plot, but doesn't seem to bother telling Takatora anything. The secret is all but out in #15 as Takatora is treated to the sight of his brother transforming into Ryugen.

Takatora is also unaware of his own associates planning to screw him over. It becomes poignant in #20, when Takatora tells Kouta that one human can destroy a hundred noble efforts, it cuts to Sid and Yoko, who talk about the fact that they don't really care for Takatora's efforts.

By the time Takatora started seeing Kouta in a positive light in #28, Micchy has already come to resent the latter, to the point of trying to kill him!

In #29, Kouta gives a speech on how he never would have gotten as far as he has if he didn't have trust in his friends. He doesn't know that he's saying this to Micchy, who has usurped his brother's role as Zangetsu Shin and is now trying to murder his former best friend out of hatred and jealousy.

Dressing as the Enemy: In #11, Kouta finds Yggdrasill's base camp within Helheim and puts on a spare hazmat suit so he can go into the tents to gather information.

Drunk with Power: Looking at the use/abuse of power and possible corruption from it is a major theme of the series. Even Kouta gets a little buzzed on a power high in the early episodes. The end of #16 is a good example, as Kouta's depressed from seeing other Beat Riders turn into both figurative and literal monsters from pursuing power as well as Yggdrasill's own questionable use of its own power; and he discusses with Bando whether power corrupts.

It becomes more complicated as the series goes on than a simple 'power corrupts' moral. Takatora and Kouta, while they do seek power, seek it to protect the innocent, and in general seem to be okay people (and ultimately two of the strongest Riders in the series), while those who seek power for the sake of power or achieving Godhood (such as Sid, Ryoma, and the majority of the Overlords) are among the biggest monsters in the series. It seems the theme is less 'power corrupts' and more 'those who seek power for its own sake are ultimately unworthy of it.'

Enemy Civil War: Yggdrasill's inner circle ALL have conflicting motivations and goals, leading to power struggles, but eventually, Ryoma's faction turns on Takatora and seemingly kills him, followed by Sid betraying the others and going out on his own, followed shortly by Ryoma himself ditching Minato after a chain of events led to Yggdrasill getting taken over by Redyue.

Enemy Mine: This happens on occasion; Kouta has no love for Yggdrasill, but he sometimes helps them in keeping an immediate threat in check.

Establishing Character Moment: The first two episodes each contain a moment where Kouta and Kaito help a child, showing that they're Not So Different. What does differ is their methods: the kinder-hearted Kouta helps a little boy find his mother and cheers him up by convincing him it's a game, while Kaito shows a Teach a Man to Fish philosophy by telling a boy stuck in a tree to jump down himself, then catches him and congratulates him, saying he has the strength to take care of himself from now on.

Establishing Series Moment: The first five episodes of the show having Kouta discovering the belt and figuring out what to do with it, along with friends calling him out on toying around and one Kamen Rider nearly murdering him before he finally realizes what he should do with the belt shows the jagged pathway that Gen Urobuchi has laid down before us.

Everything's Better with Samurai: The major theme of the series, given its Jidai Geki roots, though the Riders' designs are taken from all kinds of warriors including samurai (Gaim and Zangetsu, plus Kurokage as a footsoldier), knights (Baron, Duke, and Knuckle as squire), Eastern warriors (Ryugen is Chinese and Marika is Arabian), Roman gladiators (Bravo), and Vikings (Sigurd, and Gridon as a footsoldier version).

Expy: Gaim's helmet had an asymmetrical crescent-shaped crest similar to that of Date Masamune.

Gaim's Kiwami Arms armor is visually inspired by the armor of Oda Nobunaga.

Fake Shemp: Played with in episodes 31 and 32. Due to Ryoma Sengoku's actor, Tsunenori Aoki, taking some time off of filming Gaim to act in a musical, Ryoma only appears transformed with Aoki merely providing his voice.

False Innocence Trick: In #17, Yoko poses as Kouta's kidnapped sister by using a gag and wig to obscure her own facial features.

Family-Unfriendly Violence: Kouta doesn't get out of his first encounter with a monster anywhere near as safely as other Riders. Before he transforms the Inves roughs him up something fierce, tossing him through a steel fence; you can see blood coming from his mouth afterward.

Kamen Rider Jam: "I'm the Golden Fruit, how can I... be beaten by the likes of you!?"

Fashionable Asymmetry: The Banana and Ichigo armors have uneven shoulders, and later we get the New Generation Riders, with only one shoulder-pad each.

The Fellowship Has Ended: After the Over Lords are defeated, the Rider Alliance falls apart and go back to the good old days of backstabbing each-other.

Filler: The crossover with Ressha Sentai ToQger actually Lampshades this. The episode features an otherwise unrelated plot about the Riders battling the Badan Empire from Kamen Rider ZX, but Kaito makes sure to point out that this conflict is taking away time and focus from Kouta's war on the Yggdrasil Corporation.

Sixth Ranger: Zack, on account of getting his Driver long after everyone else.

Foil: Kouta and Kaito are perhaps the greatest. Where Kouta is optimistic, Kaito is cynical, where Kouta uses his power to protect others, Kaito uses it to defeat others, where Kouta is concerned about everyone's welfare, Kaito is only concerned with his own advancement. Taken even further when it turns out they're basically fighting for the same end, but their respective means are so impossible to reconcile that they have no choice to fight to see who achieves those ends. Ranbu Escalation, a duet between their actors, even gives it a gigantic Lampshade Hanging with the lyrics reinforcing both their differences and their similarities.

Food Pills: #15 reveals that one of the Sengoku Driver's functions is the ability to safely absorb energy from a Lockseed. In an After the End scenario, this would be very convenient.

Foreshadowing: The opening war scene in #1 is a HUGE foreshadowing of the events of the final arc.

In #11, Hase remarks that he's not going to be some mook. The very next episode shows that the Kurokage powerset has been given to Mooks.

In #3, Mitsuzane warns Sid that he will become more powerful than his brother once he joins Yggdrasill in the future, and suggests that they become friends while they can. Flash forward to #29: not only has Micchy taken over Takatora's role as the new Zangetsu Shin II, he's assisting Sid in acquiring the Forbidden Fruit due to their mutual hatred towards Kouta, which ends with Sid getting way over his head and Micchy leaving him to die for it.

Gaim in Kiwami Arms suddenly gaining the ability to summon multiple floating weapons Gate of Babylon-style. It's not just his abilities that are reaching god-tier.

#36 and #37 sees Kouta racing across town on foot, untransformed, in order to stop a battle between Mitsuzane and Takatora. All nice and dramatic... except that he seems to have forgotten that he has access to a motorcycle, a hovercycle, and a form that gives him Super Speed, purely because the writer doesn't want him to get there on time.

Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the first scene of #1, you can briefly see Kamen Rider Gridon with Baron's faction.

#2 gives us an unknown individual handling a Lockseed in the opening. This is significant because it appears to be the Matsubokkuri Lockseed and said individual is wearing a Sengoku Driver.

Another one in the opening that combines with Couch Gag - before the chorus hits on the theme song and after Baron in the Rose Attacker zips by, there's 3 random Sengoku Drivers activating. Those 3? Whichever 3 Armored Riders are in the main battle of the episode.

Gaussian Girl: Bravo gets this effect in #11 when he sees Zangetsu of all people.

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Bravo fighting Baron, saying how he will "peel off the banana off (i.e., Baron´s armor) and start working on his body".

Genre Shift: In the beginning, the story was essentially a kid-friendly version of Sengoku-era orientated works that focused on the origins of several major players and had lots of light-hearted moments that didn't make it too removed from its predecessors. However, after the first arc, it shifts over to more of Gen Urobuchi's flavor of story and comes closer to the tone of the earlier Heisei series.

Good Versus Good: The circumstances of Kouta and Kaito's final battle. Kaito wants to create a new world where the weak are not oppressed by those with power, while Kouta believes they can achieve that goal without destroying the old world.

Gory Discretion Shot: When Rosyuo kills Sid, the camera zooms upwards just before the cliff faces slam together and crush him to death.

Gratuitous English: The show is influenced by American hip-hop dancing, so it's to be expected.

Belt sounds for Baron, Gridon and Bravo's Arms are all in English; belt sounds for Gaim have English at the end ("Hanamichi On Stage!") Kurokage has them as well ("Ichigeki In the Shadows!")

At the start of the Gaim/Wizard team-up movie, Haruto's number plate on his bike suggests he's somewhere in the Carinthia (de:Kärnten) region of Austria, yet the kids speak to him in English.

Gratuitous French: Kamen Rider Bravo peppers his dialogue with French phrases. Justified since it's stated he spent a decade in France and holds dual citizenship.

Gray and Grey Morality: Kouta and his allies fight against Yggdrasill because of their immoral experiments and neglect of Zawame's citizens, but Takatora claims that achieving Yggdrasill's goal is much more important to humanity. #20 reveals this to be true; their main goal is to stop the Forest from spreading across the Earth and destroying civilization.

Both played straight and subverted as time goes on: Takatora is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely wants to save humanity, but the other higher-ups in Yggdrasill want the invasion to happen and are revealed to be outright evil.

Averted with Demushu and Redyue, who are opposed by the heroes due to being outright evil. The former is a Blood Knight who only cares about combat and destroying anyone weaker than him. The latter is a Psychopathic Woman Child who wants to conquer Earth.

The Guards Must Be Crazy: Yggdrasill is pretty much hyper-competent about everything except with their security detail. The guards forget to watch the cameras, the executives never turn off or log out of computers with sensitive information, and the Kurokage Troopers spectacularly fail during critical moments: Not only can they be tricked by simply making a sharp turn; they manage to let three targets escape while not landing a single hit with their cannons. And let's not get started on how a 16-year-old flying a Dandeliner for the first time does a better job than the mooks specifically trained for it...

He Who Fights Monsters: Both literally and metaphorically. Kouta and Kaito both end up becoming Overlords; however, Kouta remains noble and heroic, while Kaito seems to embrace the idea of conquering the Earth.

Hidden Depths: Oren's flamboyant wackiness makes him seem like a Joke Character until he shows his fighting prowess. Turns out he's ex-military. On top of that, he is able to resist a Helheim fruit while Driverless (a considerable feat, considering how hypnotically appealing the fruit appears to people throughout the series. He is in fact the only one ever to be tempted to eat one and resist it without help; even Right, ToQGer's Red Ranger, needed Kouta to blast a fruit just in time to prevent him from suffering the fate of Yuya and Hase.). This without knowing what will happen if he eats it, and after not having eaten in days. He is able to remember his training, remind himself that eating an unknown strange fruit is not a good idea, and move on.

Minato/Kamen Rider Marika is quite badass, but it's more impressive once Kouta starts utilizing the Energy Lockseeds (assuming that the Jinba Arms work for him like the Energy Arms work for the original users). The Peach Lockseed doesn't give the strength of Lemon or the speed of Cherry, and the super hearing it bequeaths could be used against the user. That means that Minato manages to be that tough by relying on her own skills to make up for less powerful armor, despite every sound around her being cranked Up to Eleven.

Hope Bringer: Kouta becomes one to Mai, Team Gaim, Takatora, and the members of the Rider Alliance.

Micchy comes to see Kouta as one, but he becomes so villainous and crazy that he thinks the hope Kouta inspires in others needs to be destroyed.

How Do I Shot Web?: Kouta, upon first transforming, has to figure out how to use his weapons. Averted later in #23 when Kouta goes into Kachidoki Arms and made the Yggdrasill building his bitch.

Likewise, after getting the Peach Energy Lockseed, Kouta tries it out with the specific intent of learning what does and soon discovers Jimba Peach Arms confers Super Senses.

Played straight again when Jonouchi as Gridon gets to use Suika Arms - and can't even get it out of ball mode.

Humans Are Bastards: Takatora states that this is Yggdrasill's reason for covering up the threat of Helheim: when faced with impending doom, humanity would panic and turn on each other. Any weapons developed to fight the Inves would be taken and turned on human enemies as well - and as if to prove his point, the other three New Generation Riders are plotting to use their power for themselves.

Rosyuo also believes this, but like Takatora, he doesn't really have any outright hatred for people and is willing to give the human race a chance to prove itself.

Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: On the earlier episodes, episodes that strongly depict the debut of a new rider or form will address the fruit in the name ("Transform! The Orange from the Sky!?" and "Shock! The Rival's Banana Transformation!?") but as the show gets more serious, it drops the innocent naming scheme in favor of a more heavier naming scheme, with most of it depicting a specific plot detail in the episode. ("Yggdrasill's Secret" and "Farewell, Beat Riders"). Case in point, one of the breather episodes after the Knight of Cerebus appeared picked up on the former scheme ("The Peach Rider, Marika, Descends!") while an early episode picks up its later scheme ("The Truth Behind the Christmas Game").

Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In #23, Yggdrasill Tower has laser beam defenses that let them fly like they're going out of style. Kouta himself never gets hit, though his Dandeliner did get knocked out of commission for a bit. Possibly justified if they're designed for a large-scale assault by an Invase swarm rather than just one target.

Incredibly Obvious Bug: Micchy tied his handphone to an Inves in #9. In a bright green pouch. You really gotta wonder why it never caught on.

Informed Attribute: Thanks to the Inves game taking priority over dance battles, Team Gaim and Baron are the only Beat Rider crews that actually do any dancing. This one's been lampshaded in-universe, but ultimately gets subverted.

Something about the unripe Lockseeds is making them hypnotically appetizing. It's certainly not the smell, since it's able to affect people over ten feet away, and appearance-wise it looks more like an uprooted beet.

Instant Expert: Whatever Arms the riders are using, they'll know all of their special functions, attributes and finishing moves instantly. The last part is justified: All of them are activated by slamming the Cutting Blade once for "Squash", twice for "Au Lait", or three times for "Sparking" attacks.

Ironic Echo Cut: #14: Kouta screams "I can't kill a human!" when he's confronting with an Inves-transformed Hase. Cut to the next scene where Micchy notes, "Yuya (who was the Byakko Inves from episode 1)...was killed by Kouta."

Irony: Becomes deeply ironic in #31. Sid, a person who considers himself a 'responsible adult' and always berates kids, saying that adults should rule over them, is the one who gets enticed by the forbidden fruit Redyue offers and gets killed, all while screaming about how he should get the Forbidden Fruit like a spoiled child. On the other hand, Mitsuzane, a part of the Beat Rider teams, is the one who instantly realizes Redyue is setting up a trap.

Even worse, when things go south they're able to put the blame on the "idiot kids" while they themselves look like benevolent authority figures. Micchy even thinks they set that up on purpose, too.

After he shows up, Demushu quickly becomes Kaito's Arch-Enemy, in large part due to Kaito was the first person to actually wound him. Much later in the series when Kaito becomes an Over Lord himself, his new Weapon of Choice is Demushu's sword.

Jobber: Any Beat Riders team without a Rider name, apparently. We've seen Team Raid Wild's leader lose to both Baron (no cheating involved this time) and Gaim (with an Armored Rider, but still) in a row. There's even Lampshade Hanging in #3 when Team Invitto's leader plans on swooping in to take Team Raid Wild's win once the dust settles. After Team Invitto lost to Ryugen in his debut fight, the two leaders lampshade this with Invitto's leader stating that they need to be as strong as Kaito... Cue Sid looking to them with a grin and giving them Sengoku Drivers.

Kid Hero: Deconstructed. As Sid points out, the reason why Yggdrasill is giving Sengoku Drivers to Beat Rider teams is because they are run by irresponsible, egocentric teenagers who never question why they are getting such power making them perfect pawns while a responsible adult will instantly realize something is wrong.

Kill It with Fire: Whenever the Helheim Forest encroaches onto Zawame City Yggdrasill puts a stop to it with a copious amount of fire.

Large Ham: The Sengoku and Genesis Drivers are this with their transformation announcements, usually expressed in a dramatic manner. Examples are Knight of spear!, Hanamichi! On stage! and Fight power! Fight Power! Fight Fight Fight F-f-f-f-fight!. Their creator flat out admits that he just added these sounds for fun when working on the device.

Loads and Loads of Characters: The series has a total of eleven Rider characters (and a twelfth powerset for Zangetsu Shin),note Gaim, Baron, Ryugen, Zangetsu (Shin), Gridon, Kurokage, Bravo, Sigurd, Marika, Duke, and Knuckle plus a Mook Rider army, five other Lockseed-using Riders in the movies (one of whom, like Zangetsu, has two Rider identities),note Bujin Gaim, Fifteen, Kurokage Shin, Kamuro, and Mars/Jam and at least four more in the post-series Gaiden DVDs.note Idunn, Tyrant, Savior, and Black Baron This officially puts us over the former record-holder even counting both Alternatives.

Local Hangout: A fruit bar named Drupers, where locals and members of the Beat Riders groups go to enjoy drinks and fruit parfaits, but also seems to be Sid's favorite place to run his Lock Seed business.

The Masquerade: Yggdrasill is all over the place with this, from making people think that the Armored Riders are a new fad to covering up the Helheim Forest's existence and stopping it from encroaching onto the human world.

Meaningful Name: The series' Transformation Trinket is the Sengoku Driver; normally "Sengoku" means Warring States (see above), but the belt's name is written with the kanji for "extreme" in place of "state".

Merchandise-Driven: As with all the recent Kamen Rider shows, Gaim features special Transformation Trinkets based off of his predecessors. However, unlike the others, they actually have a special function: equipping the Armored Rider with "Rider Arms"; we've seen seven sets based on the Heisei Riders from Decade to Gaim himself, plus Ichigo, with an additional Lockseed for Drive.

In the first four episodes alone, four unique Kamen Riders have already been introduced. To put that into perspective, Kamen Rider Beast didn't show up until #17 of Kamen Rider Wizard, while Kamen Rider Mage wasn't until #40. Even Ryuki did not have that many Riders introduced in a very short span of time (the fourth appearing Rider in Ryuki, Zolda, appeared in #6; the same episode where Scissors is killed).

Mind Screw: The series' opening scene, showing Gaim and Baron lead armies against each other while Zangetsu, Ryugen, their army, and the mysterious girl look on. Is it a future event, or something that happened in the past with other people in the armor? Is it metaphorical or literal? It reappears in #44, where it's explained as something that could have happened but didn't.

Be the Ball: Odama Modenote A giant watermelon that rolls around and crushes enemies.

Flight: Gyro Modenote Can also fire seed-like bullets from the fingertips.

Powered Armor: Yoroi Modenote The Arms' warrior form with its personal weapon.

Minor Insult Meltdown: In #2, the members of Team Baron hear a spectator remarking that she thought Team Gaim were better dancers. This pisses them off so much that they march right over to Team Gaim's headquarters and challenge them to an Inves Game, with the stakes being that Gaim will have to give up their Access Card (and effectively disband) if Baron wins.

Missed the Call: Oren becomes Kamen Rider Bravo after confiscating a Sengoku Driver that was owned by a trio of rowdy teens from team Red Hot, who were making a ruckus in his bakery. The poor kid who had the belt had shelled out a hefty fee to get it, and had it stolen before he ever got the chance to transform.

#14 confirms one fans had long suspected: Yuya was Sid's original choice for Team Gaim's Sengoku Driver, but ended up eating a Lock Fruit and changing into an Inves. His abandoned Driver was the one Kouta and Mai found in #1.

Mon: The Beat Riders resolve conflicts by playing Inves Games, but every few episodes seems to add a new Deconstruction of the concept:

Even the little ones can break out of the Inves Game and become a threat to everyone around them if the one who summoned them lets go of their Lockseed.

In the first episode, Team Gaim's manager Yuya laments the fact that nowadays people seem to care more about a dance team's win record in the Inves Game than their actual dancing skills.

In response to Yuya's comment, Bando points out the upside by saying it gives the kids an alternative to actual violence... but eventually the teams figure out how to "jailbreak" their Lockseeds and fully summon Inves outside of the Inves Game. Some teams quickly start exploiting their new power and escalate from dance crews to street gangs; the rest have to jailbreak their own Lockseeds in order to defend themselves, and the populace doesn't see any distinction between them and the power-abusing teams.

Creatures from another dimension are carriers of some disease that humans have no defense for.

A strong case of this in #23, where we go from Kouta breaking out of his Heroic B.S.O.D. and finding his Heroic Resolve to a gag about the size of Kouta's tab with Drupers to Kouta Storming the Castle and singlehandedly trashing the Scalar system!

Gaim Gaiden: Baron has the chilling revelation that Kaito lost both parents in the most horrific manner a child could witness leading into the title card, with that jaunty Baron belt tune.

Mugging the Monster: In #21, two crooks don't take Kouta, Micchy, and Zack confronting them for using Inves to rob an armored car very seriously. Said crooks are promptly curbstomped by the three without transforming.

Mundane Made Awesome: When Gaim's orange arms become "Fresh", he assumes that he's even more powerful. Assumes. His only way of beating the other Riders is to use skills you'd never expect to use in battle: He beats Ryugen using fashion show Power Walk skills to slam away the Pine Iron, barrages Zangetsu with janitor skills and aiming for the legs, and beats Baron using knife skills Baron taught him himself. No.Really.

Mundane Solution: Toward the end Zack infiltrates Kaito and Yoko's clique as a means of trying to take Kaito down from within. Knowing he's got no chance of beating them in a fight, Zack tries to catch them in human form with a time bomb. It doesn't work, but in a series so heavy on stylized combat it's surprising to even see someone try something like that.

Mundane Utility: The second episode has Kouta using his new powers to try and help with his jobs.

My Little Panzer: Hi-tech belts powered by reverse-engineered flora from Another Dimension and capable of granting their users an Instant Armor as well as various types of weaponry? Padlock-sized tools that can summon vicious, hungry beasts from said other dimension into the real world? Sure, let's just hand out some of them to those kids, why not? Justified. Yggdrasill Corporation is using said kids and their petty quarrels as guinea pigs to test the prototype belts.

Takatora breaking Hase's belt is what caused the latter's downfall and transformation into an Inves.

Non-Serial Movie: Gaim's portion of Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle falls into this category, as Takatora seeing that Micchy is with the Beat Riders and him transforming into Ryugen is something that later events of the series reveal in a different context.

Played with when it comes to The Great Soccer Match! The Golden Fruit Cup!, which seems to be in an Alternate Continuitythat main series Kaito goes to in #37. The movie itself is revealed to take place in the same universe as the series, albeit altered by one of the movie-exclusive characters before being restored to normal. The film doesn't have any real effect on canon, though...until the movie's villain appears in the main continuity in the final episode. The movie is also written by the author of Demonbane

Redyue: You thought I had great power but was too stupid to know how to use it?"

Obviously Evil: Ryugen Yomi. Instead of the usual zipper effect, the armor descends from a portal made of ominous clouds, with red lightning popping around it. When it attaches, it looks like red and black flames rise from the user instead of the normal energy and fruit juice effects that all the other Riders and forms get. The voice of the Driver is much deeper. Not to mention it's named after the fruit of the underworld, and the transformation announcement is chanting the name of the land of the dead. As one sub group renders it: Hell Fruit Arms! Realm of the Dead! Hell! Hell! Hell! It's repeated, just in case you didn't get the message the first time. And that's just the Transformation Sequence; once it's fully formed, it looks like a fusion of Ryugen's two main forms, except for the repaint: it's Red and Black and Evil All Over. Reeeeeeeal subtle, Professor Ryoma. (Of course, it is a hundred percent in character for him to go out of his way to make a crazy powerful but dangerous suit that could kill the user look and sound Obviously Evil just for funsies.)

The mysterious girl has this expression in #23, when DJ Sagara tells her he knows who she really is.

Micchy in #29, when his plan to impersonate Zangetsu Shin and attack Kouta provokes Kouta into fighting back.

Micchy again in #33, when he sees that Kouta is loading his Kiwami Arms finisher and aiming for him. Not only that, but Oren had also exposed him as an imposter from watching his fighting style.

Omniscient Council of Vagueness/Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Yggdrasill's inner circle is somewhere in between these two tropes. While they know a lot more than anyone else about what's going on; it's clear that they don't know everything, they're barely able to get along, and Takatora admits that they can barely control the Helheim situation.

Once More, with Clarity!: After Mai gains the power of the Golden Fruit, she uses it to try and Set Right What Once Went Wrong — but because she doesn't have full control over its power, she can't clearly communicate her message, resulting in her Vagueness Is Coming speeches to Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy once they get their Sengoku Drivers. Additionally, we get the full version of her conversation with Sagara in #23 while Kouta was using Kachidoki Arms to wreck Yggdrasill Tower.

Pet the Dog: Takatora seems to truly care about Mitsuzane, and also tried to warn Hase not to eat the fruit.

Planetary Parasite: The Helheim Forest, which invades and overgrows worlds, transforming everything in them into Inves, before moving on to the next.

Plot Tumor: After the first few episodes, the Inves battles and clashes between the Armored Riders completely overshadow the street dancing element. This is Lampshaded in #18 after Kaito refuses to participate in the all-team event, causing Peco to break down in tears, sobbing that he joined Team Baron so he could dance; this leads to Kaito leaving Baron, since his presence was what was causing the trouble.

Poor Communication Kills: Averted! Yes, that required emphasis. Considering how infamous its use was in early Heisei Kamen Rider and how Gaim is a throw back to those shows, an aversion is actually surprising. The series also shows just why there's usually misunderstandings. The forest would have been taken care of a lot earlier had it not been for people having ulterior motives or secret alliances to uphold. To put simply, "Why don't they just talk to each other?" "Because almost everyone is a either a dick or dumb."

During their fight in #19, Takatora offers to show Kouta the "uncontrollable, meaningless evil" he spoke of in their first battle (in other words, his reason for fighting), and Kouta accepts. While Takatora intended for it to break Kouta, it still applies.

It gets averted again with Mai. In normal Heisei Rider shows, upon finding out that the Rider has to do with their friend's untimely death, characters often accuse or outright hate the Rider and provide conflict for a good chunk of the show. Not Mai. She perfectly understands Kouta's situation... It's Mitsuzane who plays it straight.

Once again averted in #27, when Takatora has his first encounter with an Over Lord. Kouta explains what he is, and Takatora not only believes him, but it opens up a mutual trust and understanding between them, since they each realize that the other has the same goal and noble intentions... too bad Sid fights Takatora and Mitsuzane takes up his mantle, thus causing Kouta to distrust him all over again.

Averted yet again in #29, where, instead of operating under any mistaken assumptions or sense of conflict, Rosyuo and Takatora have an open and direct talk about what both sides are, what both sides want, and how both sides had/will be trying to survive the forest. Sure, it makes it perfectly clear how screwed up everything is, was and will be, but at least everyone is on the same page!

Portal Network: Lockseeds are the key to opening portals in and out of Helheim, in midair if need be. The Lock Vehicles are a peculiar case, needing to get up to speed for both vehicle and Rider to get through.

Power-Up Food: The Lockseeds. Maybe not for the Riders since they don't eat the Seeds or the fruit-Arms they summon, but certainly for the Inves. We later see that the Helheim fruit has a similar effect on humans. In the series endgame Kaito takes advantage of this.

#37 is one for the Non-Serial MovieKamen Rider Gaim: The Great Soccer Match! The Golden Fruit Cup!

Product Placement/Reality Subtext: invoked The Kikaider crossover includes a scene where Kouta's sister gets tickets for a movie titled REBOOT and the episode ends with her looking at those tickets, with the poster showing what looks to be Pinocchio, giving the nod to Kikaider's influence. The crossover is an Early-Bird Cameo for the Kikaider REBOOT movie.

Psycho Rangers: After #14, the New Generation Riders are this for the (A-Ranked) Armored Riders.

Put on a Bus: Ryoma disappears from the early-30s episodes because his actor had another project. He voices a Fake Shemp in a Duke suit for #31 and 32 and makes a short appearance in #33, but hasn't been seen since after abandoning Yggdrasill.

Random Power Ranking: Each Lockseed is ranked from D to S; the fruit-themed Riders use A Lock Seeds to transform, while the nut-themed Riders use lower-ranked ones (Gridon's Donguri is B, Knuckle's Kurumi is C+, and Kurokage's Matsubokkuri is C). Energy Lock Seeds are ranked S.

Real Life Writes the Plot: Kaito getting a Genesis Driver happened entirely due to his runaway popularity; it wasn't part of the original plan for the series. Part of the reason The Reveal ended up being so surprising is because, due to this change, Toei didn't have any early photos to send to fan magazines like Hobby Japan.

Of Poor Communication Kills induced Conflict Balls. As you might notice above, this trope commonly seen in early Hesei-era Kamen Rider shows gets averted more times than it actually gets played straight. For an example, Takatora manages to tell Kouta his reason for fighting and Kouta accepts it and understands Yggdrasill, even if the reason's a little shocking... cue Sid dropping by to tell Kouta about Yggdrasill's Scalar Weapons system, effectively resetting the conflict with Yggdrasill with a pretty clear reason why the trope exists in universe: almost everyone has ulterior motives.

And also of the Monster of the Fortnight-style story that to some became a Discredited Trope. While the problem is averted for a majority of the story, it occasionally tackled this in new perspectives (one of which being that we got to see someone turn into a Inves), and it's only by the end does this trope come back in full force, though in short bursts. The Inves (Or better to say, Overlords) that are connected to the story as antagonists working under a bigger threat instead of bringing with them a full-on plot that derails the story like most other Kamen Riders.

During the Spring Gattai Special, Mai brings up the Charmant restaurant to Mio and Kagura, setting up a possible appearance by Oren Pierre Alfonso... which never happened.

When Sagara is meeting up with the Overlords, him saying "don't let your guard down" among the Overlord's Cypher Language might have indicated that he was warning them of Kouta. However, translations show that he was actually quoting something he learned during his time in a human guise.

Red Right Hand: The Inves we know to be transformed humans all have a giant, clawed right hand and a more human left one. Also, when Hase was able to temporarily return to human form, one hand stayed partially mutated. We see this about when we realize that even when looking mostly like himself again, his mind is still that of a beast.

Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Mysterious Girl looking like Mai and Rosyuo's Queen, the reveal of why coming with episode 41. Also, when Redyue has Kouta hallucinating and turn into an Inves, he has both eyes flashing red. And in Episode 41, after witnessing Rosyuo brutally murdered, he threatens to outright crush Redyue, in a very satsifying Crowning Moment of Awesome, has his eyes flashing red, confirming his ascension to a condition 'beyond human', and restoring his Kachidoki Lockseed with sheer willpower, starting a combo of Crowning Moment of Awesome culminating in a well-deserved Curb-Stomp Battle.

Reflective Eyes: When Takatora reveals the secret of Helheim to Micchy, we are shown a very brief glimpse as Micchy stares in horror.

Refrain from Assuming: The song for Gaim's final form isn't "Kiwami Escalation", but rather "Ranbu Escalation".

Renegade Splinter Faction: Yggdrasill has one led by Professor Ryoma that has pretty much completely taken over the organization with Takatora as the only Rider that's not a member of Ryoma's nut club.

Repetitive Name: Armored Rider Gaim becomes this when the kanji for Gaim's name is translated into something along the lines of "Armored Warrior".

Rule of Cool: Prof. Ryoma Sengoku admits that the Sengoku Drivers give odd transformation calls (like "The Path of Blossoms on Stage!" and "Knight of Spear!") entirely because it's a guilty pleasure of his. Which probably explains why, out of the four Genesis Drivers, his is the only one that has such a call.

Or why, as seen in Duke Gaiden, Lemon Arms' call is "Incredible Ryo~ma!"

According toWord of God, locks were chosen as part of the theme to symbolize "Opening a new world" and "Unlocking potential."

Christian symbolism also shows up in the series, with a literal Forbidden Fruit and Sagara being "a snake". The series resolution on #46 leans especially heavily on it, with an "Adam and Eve" leaving "Eden" to start a new world. Sagara even tells them to "be fruitful, and multiply"; while noting that as a snake, it's not really his place to say that.

Sad Battle Music: Notice that during Kouta's first battle with an Inves the music is dark and grim rather than fast-passed and upbeat as the first fights in the previous Rider shows where. It gives you the sense that the fight should not be happening. Episode 14 shows us why.

The Scapegoat: The secondary purpose of the Inves Game and Beat Riders is so Yggdrasill can have convenient fall guys while they work in the shadows.

After Micchy assumes the role of Zangetsu Shin II, he keeps silent when he fights Kouta in order to trick him into thinking that Takatora is the one trying to murder him.

Secret Identity: Largely averted, seeing as some Riders are part of the dance crews, and the DJ shows footage of their activities as part of the constant battle for team standings. Only Zangetsu consistently has one, and that has more to do with his not being forthcoming than keeping a secret. Until Mitsuzane takes the identity, and then he does have a vested interest in keeping his face hidden.

Micchy has a more mundane one, posing as a snobby private school student during school hours and unwinding as his "real self" as a part of Team Gaim during his downtime. On top of that, he also kept his activities as Ryugen from his brother. And as noted, he's now the new Zangetsu Shin and keeping that a secret from Kouta and the other Armored Riders.

Oren is not even trying — since becoming Bravo, he's happily replaced his pictures on his cake box cards with ones that have him donning his Bravo armor.

Selective Obliviousness: After the Inves Plague breaks out the people of Zawame City turn against the Beat Riders while worshiping Bravo as a hero, while conveniently forgetting that Bravo himself was responsible for one of the biggest Inves rampages. This is sadly justified thanks to mob mentality and the fact that Kaito sent out some Inves when he got called out by the mob.

Self-Made Orphan: Guess who Redyue's first "toys" were after becoming an Over Lord. This might be the point where Micchy realizes just what level of lunatic he's thrown in with.

Shipper on Deck: Team Gaim seems to approve of Kouta and Mai being together, save for Mitsuzane. When he reveals his Face–Heel Turn in #35, he claims that he would have been okay with Kouta and Mai getting together, but he's become so evil and deluded that it's unclear if he's being honest.

Shoo Out the Clowns: Though not actually removed from the show in any permanent way, the Crazy Awesome Bravo and Butt-Monkey Gridon sit out the episodes with very serious plotlines until they Took a Level in Badass and joined the fray. There's also been an absence of Iyo despite Drupers still playing a part in the Overlords arc.

Show Within a Show: That DJ with his Beat Riders show, following the developments in the Beat Riders community.

Viewers Are Goldfish: Which results in his show broadcasting action replays ie.the same battle footage we just saw. This dies down as time goes on and the focus shifts away from the Inves battles, however.

Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Countless people die and are betrayed, genocide is suggested (and inflicted), and the very worst of humanity is put onto display and yet Kouta's Idealism is not only what ultimately saves the day, but even suggested by Rosyuo as the very thing that could have prevented the disaster that ended the Femushinmu.

Something Completely Different: The teamup and movie tie-in episodes. In the other, more episodic series, they might not seem so out of place and definitely wouldn't be unwelcome, but Gaim is a tightly plotted serial where every episode leads directly into the next, more like a book where you get another chapter every week. As such, it's pretty bizarre when an episode, instead of having any connection with where the previous episode left off, starts with the ToQgers' train dropping by a dancing session that gets crashed by the villains from Kamen Rider ZX, or with Another Dimension where dead past characters are back and everyone's... playing soccer? The Kikaider teamup was at least foreshadowed by Jiro dropping into town...but the crossover was still a Whole Episode Flashback.

The name of the monsters might be seen as Inves, Invase, Inbess, and so on. Officially, it's "Inves"◊; though "Invase" might be more accurate since the name is derived from "invasive species" (as Ryoma calls the Helheim flora in #20).

Mitsuzane's nickname could be spelled as "Micchy", "Micchi", "Mitchy" or "Mitch".

Gaim's Mid-Season Upgrade is based on a garment called a jinbaori, but it's been romanized in places as "Jimber" rather than "Jinba".

The villain of the summer movie is officially Kamen Rider Mars - which fits him, being the name of a war god - but the alternate reading of "Malus" possibly fits him better as it both reflects his alignment (Latin for "evil") and his theme fruit (it's the name of a genus of apple tree). Similarly, one of the Gaiden Riders' names can be read as "Idunn" or "Eden", which are both mythologically-based and connected to apples.

Spoiler Title: Subverted in a Meta Twist fashion. #18's title is "Farewell, Beat Riders". You can be forgiven for thinking this refers to the Beat Riders disbanding, as a major plot point that developed in the Yggdrasill Saga was that they were getting lots of flak. However, the Beat Riders actually start turning things around; the title instead refers to Kaito leaving the Beat Riders, so it's in a way him saying "Farewell, Beat Riders". It could also be the show saying goodbye to the Beat Rider storyline as it moves its focus to the Inves conflict.

Stable Time Loop: In #43, Mai uses the power of the Forbidden Fruit to go back in time, as the Mysterious Girl, to try and convince Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy to turn away from the fates they'll choose, since she now knows said fates will inevitably result in their deaths or the loss of their humanity. Not only does her attempt not work, but it causes early-series Sagara to know exactly who she will become down the line and who the final few people to be contenders for the Forbidden Fruit will end up being, thus explaining why he spent so much of the series focusing on Kouta.

Status Quo Is God: A noticeable aversion. For the first time in Kamen Rider history there is no status quo. Not an episode goes by without a new Rider entering the fray, a new form being gained, a dark secret being revealed, or alliances forming or breaking. You can't go an episode without something important happening, and the episodes that usually don't have something important happening is usually a Breather Episode with no real impact to the series and feels removed from the entire plot.

Story Arc: Whereas previous Kamen Riders focused on two-episode story arcs, Gaim is split into seasons, which Toei calls "Sagas". In order:

#1-11: The Beat Riders Saga, which represents a time of childhood and introduces all the Sengoku Driver-using Riders.

#12-19: The Yggdrasill Saga, a story of adulthood which introduces the Energy Lock Seeds.

#20-23: The Helheim Saga, a shorter arc that builds the story up towards its climax, with the stakes getting even higher than before.

#24-32: The Overlord Saga, in which the Riders must contend with the Overlord Inves, masters of the Forest.

#33-47: The Forbidden Fruit Saga, where the Overlords order an all-out invasion of Earth. The previously scattered and conflicting Riders must band together to prevent the extinction of humanity.

Strawberry Shorthand: One of Gaim's rarely-used Lockseeds is the Ichigo (Strawberry) Lockseed, which grants him a ninja-esque armor and throwing knives. Ichigo's "cuteness" is referenced in the Hyper Battle DVD by Kamen Rider Zangetsu when he's testing alternate armors for possible use in combat - he tries out the Ichigo Arms form, but decides it's too cute for him.

Superman Stays out of Gotham: Kouta urges the ToQger kids not to get involved in the conflict with the Inves, as he claims its not their fight. Likewise, Ticket advises the kids not to aid the Kamen Riders, as Zawame doesn't actually contain any Shadows for them to fight. This doesn't stop them, however. Their involvement is kept to one teamup due to the premise of ToQger: the train travels all over, and they're off to their next stop after lending a hand in Zawame.

Super Mode: For the first and second story arcs, the Suika Arms (a Mini-Mecha much more heavily armed than normal Rider gear) and the Jinba Lemon Arms qualify, respectively. The third arc then introduces Kachidoki Arms, which acts as a more traditional Super Mode. It can later be upgraded into Kiwami Arms, Gaim's true Super Mode, via a new Lock Seed.

Zangetsu Shin is this to normal Zangetsu, though it's technically created with a completely different transformation device and acts as a permanent upgrade. Baron later gains a Genesis Driver and receives a similar upgrade, while Mitsuzane becomes Zangetsu Shin II.

Supervillain Lair: Yggdrasill Tower. It lords over Zawame City, has a permanent portal to Helheim in it, is heavily armed with laser guns, has an Invisibility Cloak to stop the populace from realizing anything weird is going on, and possesses the Scalar System, a WMD that can destroy the entire city and kill everyone in it.

Interestingly enough, the tower becomes a lair for Redyue once she begins her invasion of Earth and overruns the building with plants from Helheim.

Tempting Apple: All of the Riders are fruit-themed, which the series justifies by drawing on fruit-related mythology such as the World Tree. There's even a literal power-granting Forbidden Fruit that looks like a golden apple; and considering how many people are vying for it, it also serves as an Apple of Discord.

Theme Music Powerup: Just Live More starts playing for the very last battle in the series: Kouta (Kiwami Arms) and Micchy (Budou Arms) vs. Kougane (Darkness Arms)

There Can Be Only One: Kouta and Kaito are the two contenders who were worthy enough to claim the Golden Fruit as they fight to the death. The entire conflict in Gaim is also seen as one, with this trope being invoked time and time again as the number of capable Riders dwindle. Unlike Ryuki though, the defeated Riders can be spared alive, as Zack, Jonouchi, Oren, and Takatora are still alive at the end of the series despite being defeated and losing their powers, with Takatora and Zack later regaining their powers in Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Drive And Gaim Movie War Full Throttle and Zack's Gaiden story respectively.

These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Helheim is home to the ruins of an alien city, entirely consumed by the forest. It's so shocking that Micchy immediately accepts Takatora's offer to join Yggdrasill, and Kouta doesn't take it much better.

Touched by Vorlons: According to DJ Sagara Helheim has come to Earth before, granting great power to famous mythological figures in Norse and Greek mythology (and Christian mythology is heavily implied as well, but not stated).

To Be a Master: Deconstructed. With the exception of Team Gaim, every Beat Rider team is obsessed with being the best of the best, causing them to ignore very important problems.

Tragedy: The show would have been this if it weren't for the Breather Episodes and a couple of comic reliefs from Oren and Jonouchi.

Trailers Always Spoil / Late-Arrival Spoiler: Notice that most of the marketing (including the banner used as the page image here) either downplays or ignores Kamen Rider Kurokage. Not surprisingly, he is the first Armored Rider to be stripped of his powers and then killed.

Similarly, but much more subtly, one of the vehicles in a magazine scan has its user, Kurokage, shown with his belt as a black silhouette. This is because the original Kurokage driver is similar to but not identical to the mass-produced ones used by the actual users of the Tuliphoppers: the Kurokage Troopers that appear after the death of the original.

The main villain of the final episode? Kougane, the Big Bad of the movie.

Ungrateful Bastard: Once mob mentality set in for the citizens, they rarely acknowledge Beat Riders as their heroes, even after witnessing them attacking the Inves. In fact, they hail a guy who fought a Beat Rider as a hero despite the former being responsible for an Inves outbreak... Granted, the latter was about to sic some Inves at the mob...

Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In Knuckle Gaiden, the audience isn't told what Zack asks Peko to do for him. It only becomes clear when Peko returns and throws him a Genesis Core that it's clear Zack asked him to go get the Core from Kaito's broken Genesis Driver.

The people playing with the Inves, as it's causing dimensional tears that are allowing bigger monsters to get through. Whether of not Yggdrasill Corporation counts for making the Inves arrive in the first place is unknown, although #2 shows Yggdrasill harvesting the Lockseeds. It soon becomes a massive problem once it's discovered that the Inves were carriers of diseases.

This later turns out to be a subversion: it's revealed that the cracks to Helheim are opening up regardless of whether or not people summon Inves with the Lockseeds. Yggdrasill got the Beat Riders to start using the Lockseeds in order to set them up as scapegoats to avoid a mass panic.

Had it not been for Kouta and Mitsuzane coming up with the Christmas Game, Hase wouldn't have come into clashes with Takatora, wind up with a broken Driver and eventually a desire for power that turns him into an Inves.

Yuya's role is small, but he essentially set into motion everything in the show. Him eating the Lockseed caused him to become an Inves and he dropped the Sengoku Driver that Kouta picked up, thus becoming Gaim and sparking the Armored Rider scene and the above Christmas Game. His death by his hands is also what sparks Mitsuzane's fear of Kouta, as well as his concerns of him finding out about it.

Ultimately, Mai herself is the cause of most of what happens. After obtaining the power of the Golden Fruit, she tries to travel back in time to save her friends from their grisly fates. But she couldn't be more specific because changing the time stream was too difficult. In fact, her vague words only push Kouta, Kaito and Mitsuzane into continuing to fight. This is also what causes Sagara into seeing which one of the last Riders will remain, which explains why he put so much focus into Kouta in the first place.

Unwitting Pawn: Every Armored Rider is this to Yggdrasill. They're even called 'guinea pigs' by the inner circle.

Kouta: Looking back on it, that was when the gears were starting to turn. But... we really didn't realize anything at all. We didn't know that our fates were already written in stone. We just wanted the power to reach our dreams, we thought that would help us grow up. That's what we all believed, at least. But... you can't wish yourself into growing up. You grow up when you can't be a child anymore... In the endless war that has yet to come... we would discover that for ourselves...

Victim of the Week: Also averted like Monster of the Week above, but all the movie events play with this. In Sengoku Movie Taisen, it's Tokugawa. In Kamen Rider Taisen, it's Kamen Rider Fifteen (rather than his son who's Dead All Along). In the upcoming Gaim summer movie it's heavily implied to be Kamen Rider Kamuro.

Villain Episode: #20 is essentially Kouta and Kaito hanging out with the villains and having them take the main focus and role of exposit what happened and why Yggdrasill exists, with Zack, Oren, and Micchy having small parts.

#43 involves the Big Bad Ensemble playing King of the Hill on who gets to be the Final Boss. Kaito is the winner.

Villains Want Mercy: In #11 when the Yggdrasill camp is being overrun by Inves, one of the scientists begs Kouta for help despite laughing and talking about how the Beat Riders are just guinea pigs before. Kouta calls him out on being a Hypocrite, but still helps save the day.

Villain with Good Publicity: Yggdrasill encourages the popularity of the Inves Game by distributing Lock Seeds, hands out Drivers to kids as part of their shady experiments, and later frames them for the outbreak of the Inves Plague. Granted, #16 hints that Yggdrasill might not be so villainous after all, as their means might be justified to save humanity.

Most of them, actually; the creatures we and the characters know as Inves, were the native people of what is now the Helheim Forest. Non-sapient Earth animals have been shown turning into Elementary Inves, but even they were only a foot high or so...

War Arc: The Forbidden Fruit Saga becomes one when Zawame turns into one giant battlefield between the Riders and the Inves, with outside interference being interrupted by Rosyuo.

The War Sequence: #1 opens up with Baron and Gaim's forces charging at each other while Zangetsu and Ryugen watch on. It's topped by the actual war in #45, which shows Kouta and Kaito brawling all throughout the ruins of Zawame as their respective armies of Inves clash all across the city.

Hilariously, in the Hyper Battle DVD, this was unintentional: Using the powers of fashion, janitorial agility and kitchen knifework, Kouta beat Ryugen, Zangetsu and Baron respectively with his pathetic FreshOrange Arms.

Wham Episode: Before we start listing them off, there are a lot of shocking developments in this show, to the point where almost every other episode can be see as one. It owes a lot to the pacing, though in order to keep the list as short as possible, stick to the most notable wham episodes. Also keep in mind that the serialized nature of the show means that some Wham events listed may officially start in the episode prior or end in the episode after.

Urobuchi, who wasn't kidding about what he said, seriously warned that #14 would put kids off orange juice. He was right. In the last episode, Hase had turned into an Inves, and unlike humans-turned-monsters from other Rider series, he isn't saved: the New Generation Riders debut and Hase is killed by Kamen Rider Sigurd, who is revealed to be Sid. Worse, we find out that the Inves from back in #1 was in fact Team Gaim's missing leader Yuya, meaning that Kouta had unknowingly killed one of his close friends.

#20. The truth is revealed: Helheim actually invaded a civilization long ago and absorbed it into their own forest, turning the humans into Inves, with Earth turning into another Helheim within ten years. In addition, Sid, Ryoma, and Yoko are planning to use Helheim for their own needs and ask Kaito to join them. Not only that, we learn that, despite the Beat Riders swearing off using Inves, the citizens of Zawame still rely on their mob mentality and Oren's word. Worse still, Kouta and Kaito both react to this with disturbingresults.

#26-28 makes good on the Warring States references by coming the closest to the betrayal at Honnouji. After a failed Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! by Mai, Mitsuzane goes full Heel and begins trying to kill Kouta. Ryoma, Sid, and Yoko finally turn on Takatora, and they think they might have killed him. With Takatora out of the way, Sid betrays Ryoma and destroys his lab, entering the big crack as it disappears. And finally, Micchy takes Takatora's Driver and attacks Kouta as Zangetsu Shin, ruining Kouta's alliance with Takatora.

#31-33 is is a major game-changer: Demushu has invaded the human world, causing Zawame to go into lockdown. Sid picks a fight with Roshuo and gets killed. While Gaim gets Kiwami Arms, Redyue launches a full-scale invasion, turning Zawame into a war zone cut off from the outside world. Ryoma tops things off by exposing everything Yggdrasill knows to the world, absolutely shattering any semblance of The Masquerade.

The early-40s episodes have a series of Whams leading into the endgame: The last Overlords are killed, leaving Helheim to be the humans' problem. Sagara reveals himself to be Helheim itself. The Forbidden Fruit has been entrusted to Mai, and Ryoma dissects her to get it; but instead her spirit becomes the Woman of the Beginning from the start of the show. Ryoma also manipulates Mitsuzane into another attempt to kill Kouta, and he apparently succeeds when Kouta seemingly sacrifices himself to save and forgive Mitsuzane; and the loss of both his friends leaves Micchy a sobbing wreck. Finally, Kaito eats a Helheim fruit and becomes an Over Lord, declaring his intention to destroy the world, and starts off with finishing off Ryoma. Oh, and three of the four remaining Genesis Drivers are destroyed.

#44 deserves special mention as Kouta is out of action, and our heroes' attempt to stop Kaito leads to betrayal as Zack turns on them, leading to the Sengoku Drivers for Gridon and Bravo being shattered forever.

Sid: Lemme tell you where you're wrong. What we're trying to protect is the secret. The whole city is just one big honey pot. That ring around the Yggdrasill tower? It's called a scalar-electromagnetic weapon. If we have to, we can use it to burn Zawame City to the ground. With just a press of a button.

Kouta: That's crazy... I thought you were protecting mankind!

Sid: Oh, we are. Protecting mankind. Even at the cost of this little hole. But of course... If no one knows, they can live their lives in blissful ignorance. So let's keep up a good fight, yeah?

Wham Shot: #14: Yuya in the Helheim Forest, eating the Lockseed that would make him the Byakko Inves.

In #20, Kouta and the audience are shown the sight that horrified Micchy back in #16. It was the ruins of a city that had been conquered by the Inves, thus revealing that Helheim is an entire WORLD that the Inves had conquered. And Earth is next.

#23 has a small wham shot in the form of Sagara and the Helheim girl standing on the same roof witnessing Gaim's Kachidoki Arms debut, and then right after, the two engage in a conversation, establishing some sort of relationship between the two. Earlier in the episode, there's also Sagara creating a Lock Seed.

#36 has another. Kaito gets a cut from Redyue, and it's clear that he's been infected by the Helheim virus that the Inves spread, albeit even worse.

#40: Helheim vines spread out of Kouta, completing his transformation into an Over Lord.

#41: This episode is full of them. For example, Kouta's Over Lord powers of teleportation and his summoning of Helheim vines.

Kouta and Mai's red eyes, showing that they are no longer fully human.

#43: Kouta throwing away the Musou Saber at the last moment, followed by Micchy stabbing Kouta THROUGH KIWAMI'S ARMOR IN THE STOMACH!

What Happened to the Mouse?: Okay, in the last Movie Wars, Nitou contracted with Chimera once more. There'll be the need to feed Chimera, but it's okay! He finds Helheim fruits just as delicious and nutritious as the mana of destroyed Phantoms! Good thing it's not like Kamen Rider series only go a year and the Helheim fruits are definitely going to always be around, right? RIGHT? Now that Kouta used the Golden Fruit's power to send the Helheim flora to the new world, by all rights that should spell Nitou's doom. Chimera did warn him he might regret it...

Then again, Kouta establishes that he can still travel back and forth between worlds, and there's no indication that he can't just go get some more fruit for them either.

#47: Mitsuzane claims his Budou Lockseed is the last Lockseed left on Earth, once the last Matsubokkuri Lockseed is trashed. We know the Melon Energy and Yomotsuheguri Lockseeds were destroyed, but no mention is made of the fate of his Kiwi and Suika Lockseeds. The Kiwi Lockseed does reappear in the Gaim and Drive Movie War, but the Suika Lockseed's status is still left hanging.

In Knuckle Gaiden, Oren pulls a Big Damn Heroes and beats up a load of Neo Baron thugs to let Zack get away, then promptly disappears from the story.

What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Deconstructed by Sigurd, who was asked why he killed an Inves that used to be human, claiming that what he did was justice.

Wide-Eyed Idealist: Kouta starts out as one, but increasingly gets put through the ringer over the course of the series. Fortunately, he hangs on to his optimism and becomes a more mature Ideal Hero.

The Worf Effect: The Curb-Stomp Battle between Bravo and Baron, the first time Baron is forced to rely on summoning Inves, and still lost. Justified as Bravo is a trained soldier while Baron is, while badass, a normal guy.

And then in #11, Zangetsu turns right around and makes Bravo look like a fool, justified because he understands the Sengoku Driver's functions completely while Bravo is learning as he goes. Also because Bravo was busy swooning over Zangetsu at the time.

Then played straight in #17 and #21. Thanks to Oren and Sid picking fights, Gaim uses Jinba Lemon Arms and beats both Bravo and Sigurd fair and square.

Taken even further in #44, where Bravo going against Lord Baron actually costs him his Driver.

The World Tree: Evoked in the company Yggdrasill, which ties into the whole "fruit" themenote If you don't get it, what is one of the things that fruit grows on?. Their headquarters is even a tree-shaped tower.

Better yet, their headquarters even accommodates a sacred tree which serves as a permanent portal to Helheim Forest. It's explained in #20 that said tree used to stand at the Takatsukasa Shrine, and is believed to have come from Helheim. If you pay close attention, you could actually spot the tags on the Shrine Tree.

You Can't Fight Fate: In #43, Mai uses the power of the Golden Fruit to try and prevent all of this from happening by going back in time and warning Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy not to use the Sengoku Drivers. However, because (as Sagara tells her afterwards) the Golden Fruit's power is hard to control, instead of her intended warnings she just delivers the Vagueness Is Coming speeches we saw earlier in the show.

Kouta and Kaito have been decided by fate to be the final competitors for the Golden Fruit. #45 also shows that Kouta is the fated winner.

You Shall Not Pass: Oren and Jonouchi deliberately stay behind to fight off the Inves horde while Kouta and the others rescue those kidnapped by the Overlords.

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